Whistle While You Work!

When I was in 5th grade, all four 5th grade classes at my elementary school put on an operetta together--How the West Was Won. I had some speaking lines as a narrator and a solo in the final song. I was also in the square dancing scene, dancing with my neighbor Al.

Things have come full circle, and I am directing elementary dramas.

Co-directing, that is, as a part of Melmansiek Productions (the "Mel" part).

Truly, this was one of the most fun and rewarding experiences of my life. From reading the initial script to last night's performance, it has been a great ride. Planning meetings at Starbucks, branding the show, building excitement before auditions, casting, afterschool rehearsals, Saturday rehearsals, posters, banners, Thursday's matinee, and Friday's show. Phew! It's been a lot of work but filled with laughter and smiles. The 28 kids in the show were a blast and it was terrific to work with all the adult help, especially my partners in crime.

I initially created the silhouettes with the possibility of colorizing them with bright colors and bold patterns. Before we reached that stage, we decided to place Snow White within a China context. What was a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom-inspired cutting style (and possible color palette) morphed into the childlike red Chinese papercuts.


I was incredibly grateful to find the font Paper Cutout by Kimmy Kirkwood on dafont.com.
              The letters were perfect for our aesthetic.

I've translated the logo for many uses. This long format was the header for all letters to parents.


We sell tickets with options for transportation since campus is outside of town and most people don't have cars.


The cast shirts were red with the logo in black on the front and "Cast" on the back, along with the names of the students. The adult shirts were black with red ink and said "Crew" on the back.


Check out some group shots below. Be sure to notice the elements of the "papercut" set in the background. It was fun to think through how our papercut silhouettes would translate into the set.

The dwarfs' house is inspired by Kailan's grandpa's house and the palace is inspired by Forbidden City.

With Art

Stumbled across this picture today.

It's almost two years old. I found this sign while wandering with some friends in a public park with lots of art (Sculpture Garden) along the sea. I thought I might post it with a few others.
























Here are four of my students with the sign. We went down to the beach with my afterschool outdoor drawing class during spring of my first year. Looking at the picture tonight makes me sad; only the girl on the left is still at my school. The other three have moved on to other schools in other countries.

The realities of life in the expat community.

And then there is this picture from last summer. What happened to our better life and city? If only I could read the characters...I know the first two...the name of a nearby mountain.



I should go back to the park one of these days. It looks like they are almost finished constructing a crazy building at the one end of the park. I hear it's going to be an art space, but I've been hearing that for two years now...

Afterschool Art Takes the Cake!

One fun thing about my job is afterschool art. Students sign up to stay afterschool for one hour and participate in different activities. In September and October, the session was five weeks long. A whooping 24 first, second, and third graders signed up for Monday afternoons. It was a nice treat that only 8 fourth and fifth graders signed up for Wednesdays.

For this session, I decided to do an exploratory art theme. On the first day, I told the 4th and 5th graders we would be studying verbs. The confusion was beautiful.

Was this afterschool English class?

I asked them to list verbs for making art: draw, paint, collage, print, sculpt... I explained that each week we would be exploring a different verb from this list of five.

For drawing, we did mixed media work combining colored pencils, oil pastels, crayons, markers, and other drawing media.
For painting, we learned various watercolor techniques.
For collage, they made representational and non-objective work.
For printmaking, we made styrofoam prints and monoprints.

Eventually, it was the sculpting week. I couldn't decided what material to use. Third grade made cardboard sculptures. That would be one possibility. Fifth grade was already in the middle of a wire sculpture project during their class time. Clay would be impossible.

Suddenly, it came to me. My principal told the 4th and 5th graders we could have ice cream on the last day if their artwork was A-quality. (They'd been asking about grades for afterschool art, and ice cream seems like a good grade!) Given the situation with dairy, it seemed like a great alternative would be CAKE SCULPTING!

Family Fun and Ace of Cakes became great resources. I made two round cakes, one square cake, and 6 cupcakes. I also bought two cans of white icing, Skittles, M&M's, and Fruit by the Foot in various colors.

Once again, I used the "catch them off guard" motivation tactic. I don't know the official name, but I'm sure Julia taught it to us in Early Field. I told the class we all needed to sit at one table. I asked them what types of materials are used to make sculpture. Clay, stone, metal, wire, cardboard. They listed some main ones. We wouldn't be using any of those materials. We were using something new, and before we made our sculpture, we needed to research this kind of sculpture on the Internet. At this point in time, I played some Ace of Cakes videos from FoodNetwork.com. You should have seen their faces...a lot of confusion, for one. An American girl whispered under her breath "wait, we're using cake?" For other kids, it didn't click until I carried the cakes into the art room. Yes, we were using cake!

On Ace of Cakes, they talk about using standard round and square pans, then cutting and carving into the shapes. At this point in time, we looked at some cake designs from Family Fun. I printed out instructions that consisted of cutting cakes into different sections and reassembling with icing to create pencils, panda bears, and more. Before we decided on a design, we cast our collective vote in a web poll for the best cakes on the Family Fun website. There were some inspiring designs!

Someone offered a palm tree for our design. I liked the idea. It seemed mildly challenging, but doable. The square cake would make a great tree trunk. The round cakes could be cut into palm fronds. Lastly, the cupcakes would make cute little coconuts!

We began cutting. The kids were quite hesitant, but I reassured them we could always "glue" pieces back together with icing. I scored guidelines for the cuts onto the cakes and let different students hack away (using butter knifes)! We also trimmed the cupcakes to make them more spherical.

























The next step was a base coat of icing! Still, the kids were a little too delicate. It was getting mighty close to 4:00, time to go home! I found the best method to expedite the process was to slop a huge glob of icing in a section and let the kids spread it around. Each student took turns icing the tree. For time's sake, we decided the sides didn't need icing.



























We had a little extra cake from the round pans and decided to make some sand for the tree. Of course, all the small trimmings had already been consumed by the crew, but these were large chunks!

After the base coat, the decorations kicked into gear! It was an all-out mad house as they quickly covered the fronds with anything green, the trunk with brown and purple items, and the sand with yellow and orange. We decided to leave the chocolate cupcake au natural because of their brown color.

Thankfully, we didn't need blue or red items. Those candies made for extra snack!











































Eventually, it was time to cut the cake! We barely had enough time to give each kid some cake and send them to the bus with their treat.

Between the nibbles of cake and candy during the sculpting, and the LARGE portions of cake they took on the bus, I'm pretty sure none of the kids wanted dinner that night!

The next morning, as one fifth grade class came to art, they said "did they really decorate a cake yesterday in afterschool art?" It was true, and a few stray bits of icing and cake crumbs around the room confirmed it!

Here's the whole crew with our Palm Tree cake sculpture!


















So yummy, Christopher is licking his fingers in the picture!